How to use the command `wl-paste` (with examples)

wl-paste is a tool used to access data stored in the clipboard for Wayland, a display protocol. With wl-paste, users can retrieve the content of the clipboard and perform various actions with it. This article will illustrate three different use cases of the wl-paste command.

Use case 1: Paste the contents of the clipboard

Code:

wl-paste

Motivation: There may be instances where you need to retrieve the content stored in the clipboard and view it in your terminal. This could be helpful for troubleshooting or examining the data without having to paste it into a specific application.

Explanation: The use of the wl-paste command without any additional arguments retrieves the content stored in the clipboard.

Example output: If the clipboard contains the text “Hello, world!”, running wl-paste would output:

Hello, world!

Use case 2: Write the contents of the clipboard to a file

Code:

wl-paste > path/to/file

Motivation: Copying and pasting content is a common action, but sometimes you may want to store the content in a more permanent way, such as in a file. This use case allows you to easily save the content of the clipboard to a specified file.

Explanation: By using the > symbol, the output of the wl-paste command is redirected to a file specified by path/to/file. This creates a new file (or replaces the content of an existing file) with the content of the clipboard.

Example output: If the clipboard contains the text “Hello, world!”, running wl-paste > path/to/file would save the text to a file at the specified path.

Use case 3: Pipe the contents of the clipboard to a command

Code:

wl-paste | command

Motivation: Sometimes, you may want to use the content of the clipboard as input for another command. Piping the clipboard content to another command allows you to perform further actions or transformations on the text.

Explanation: By using the | symbol, the output of the wl-paste command is passed as input to the specified command. This enables you to perform additional operations on the clipboard contents using various commands available in your terminal.

Example output: If the clipboard contains the text “Hello, world!”, running wl-paste | grep "Hello" would output:

Hello, world!

Conclusion:

The wl-paste command is a useful tool for accessing and manipulating data stored in the clipboard for Wayland. With the ability to retrieve, save to a file, or pipe to another command, you can efficiently work with clipboard contents directly from the terminal.